


The last chip

by Antares10



Series: Seto Kaiba and his horrible life choices [4]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Bad Decisions, Banned Together Bingo, Canon-Typical Violence, Kaiba Seto Being Kaiba Seto, Kaiba not dealing well, Nightmare, Other, Pre-Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions, Prompt: Gambling, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, as in Kaiba not dealing well with stuff in canon too, dream - Freeform, gambling with ones life, hinted suicidal behavior
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-09-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:40:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26632999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Antares10/pseuds/Antares10
Summary: Kaiba is no stranger in betting everything to gain everything.He is not dealing well. Even his dreams start to call him out.
Relationships: Seto Kaiba / Yami Yuugi (hinted at)
Series: Seto Kaiba and his horrible life choices [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/704361
Kudos: 8
Collections: Banned Together Bingo 2020





	The last chip

Kaiba was alone.

It wasn't new and it wasn't unusual. In fact, Kaiba hat been alone for a... while.

Mokuba had written him a text and called him at least once a week. Nobody else non-work-related would text him. Nobody else would call him for something that wasn't for work.

It was good. Really. He was more productive like this. Everything else would just be a distraction, really. He had a goal in front of him and he had to reach it and so he couldn't afford to be distracted.

Kaiba looked at the program in front of him.

It was not much to look at in. Lines and likes of code, of variables and their meaning, all written down more or less neatly in front of him.

It might not be perfect yet, but it was as close to perfection Kaiba could manage.

See, the thing is... the THING is...!

There was a thing, he was sure of it. Ah, yes. The King of Games. That was the thing. The thing as in the reason as in why he did this. Programming in the dark with only a very very vague idea of what he was doing.

He wanted him back. The damn bastard just up and disappeared into the afterlife, into his happy ending, when he left everything, EVERYTHING, unresolved with Kaiba.

_And Kaiba thought this was special, that they had a bound, something important and unique only to them. He had SEEN the look in the other Yugi's eyes, hat seen the same fire that could break through any cold, no matter how thick it had collected around his heart. When they dueled Kaiba had felt alive and he was sure, he was so sure, the other Yugi had felt the same._

Kaiba hit the button before he could go down to much that particular line of thought.

The result was not that impressive, to be honest. The effect was more akin to the very first holotech for duel monster. In the chamber next to the computer a hologram was created. It was... not quite finished.

It looked like Yugi. Or well... the other Yugi. A bit at least.

It was mostly a shadow but the shape was about right, body and hair and posture. It had no other features or textures, the only things Kaiba had bothered to program for now were the eyes. They still didn't look quite right, not the right shape or shade of red. But it was close, close enough for now at least.

The hologram itself was also pretty small, maybe the size of a doll. And all it did was looking at him.

“Don't look at me.” Kaiba scolded his creation, feeling that anger burning through him again. The eyes were still looking at him.

“It's all your fault.” Kaiba hissed. “You just...waltzed in and messed everything up. Then you said to me I should get better. And then you just disappear. As if it doesn't matter!”

His creation was just looking at him. No voice, no movement. As dead as the phantom he was chasing.

To hell with sleep, he had to finish this!

He sat down at the computer again, fingers flying over the keys, writing and re-writing code in a language he himself had created just for this one purpose.

His creation stayed as it was, looking at him emotionless and empty.

“... you are not doing a very good job of this, you know?”

“Shut up.” Kaiba growled, glaring at the other Yugi.

They were standing at the edge of a wall. The wall of that stupid castle in Pegasus's Duelist's Kingdom. The duel he had with Yugi to get the star chips to get in and rescue his brother. The duel he WON, thank you very much.

In front of him was Yugi, the weak one. The one that stopped, that cried, that screamed and was frozen in time like the others that followed him around like lost duckings.

Beside him was the other Yugi. A ghost, transparent and together with Kaiba the only ones able to move. He gave Kaiba a disapproving look.

“What if Yugi hadn't stopped me?”

  
“I told you.” hissed Kaiba. “I took a gamble. But I knew he wouldn't be able to continue to play.”

“This is not a game, Kaiba.”

Kaiba snorted. “It isn't? Is the KING of GAMES actually telling me that life ISN'T a game?”

“It's not.” said the other Yugi, serious. “Games can be important but they stay games. You can learn, you can get better. Losing means you can do better next time. Life has consequences. And you... you stopped PLAYING Kaiba. You are only gambling now.”

Kaiba snorted. “Spare me the long speeches.”

“We are in your mind.” chuckled the other Yugi. “I only do what you think I would do.”

“So you are here now to give me what... life advice?”

“You know I am not the one who should do that.” said the other Yugi. “... look. Kaiba. I am dead. I am for a long time. I was dead when we met and have been so for many, many life-times. What I did was foolish. I did play. With death, with life and everything in between. I bet and gambled with not my own life but that of the ones I had sworn myself to protect.”

The other Yugi looked at the frozen memory of the weaker Yugi. “I had to be reminded that that wasn't a good path to march upon. It was pure luck that Yugi was strong enough to stop me.” he looked at Kaiba again. “What you have to realize is that Yugi didn't stop me because he was a good person or even liked you in any way. He saw a person willing to throw their life away, even if that meant damning their brother to a fate worse than death. He saw me taking the bet. And he saw what you and I did the absolute wrong thing in any case. He choose the only option any normal person should have taken: Interrupt the game.”

“He LOST the game! I WON.” roared Kaiba.

“He lost the game, maybe.” said the other Yugi. “But don't for a second think you won, Kaiba. In the end, it was all for nothing.”

Kaiba almost took a step back at the harsh sound of the other Yugi's voice as he turned fully to Kaiba, glaring.

“You refused help. You distressed others. It didn't matter to you that others were in danger. It didn't matter to you that YOU were in danger. You wanted to do this all alone and your way and in the end, what did you get? You lost to Pegasus anyway. You didn't gain anything. You just made everything worse. If Mokuba truly mattered to you, you wouldn't have gambled like this. Don't insult your brother and don't insult me like this. This was your own selfish need to win. Me being willing to call your bluff is my sin to bear. You standing at this cliff? That was your own decision.”

There was air under his foot and Kaiba hastily leaned back forward to not fall.

“Kaiba, this can't go on.” The other Yugi almost sounded sad, subdued and that made Kaiba wip around and stare at him again.

“What do you mean?”

“You destroying yourself. You hold yourself hostage so others will do what you want.” said the other Yugi. “To make me lose the game when you can't win. To make Mokuba take care of you because you can't do it yourself. To make others distract you from the things you don't want to talk about.”

And something cold and dreadful and strong was wrapping itself around Kaiba's chest and squeezed because this was about more, this felt familiar and still managed to pull the rug from underneath his feet.

“Kaiba, you have to let me go. You have to accept that I am gone. And you have to accept that you are alive.”

“SHUT UP!”

Suddenly the floor broke away and Kaiba was falling, down down and down and the other Yugi was staring down at him, watching him fall, his eyes staying firmly on him but empty and cold like a doll...

And Kaiba fell the distance from his chair to the hard ground, computer still on and showing a rows and rows of gibberish. He was panting and sweating and he was refusing to acknowledge the wetness on his face as anything else.

Betrayed by his body's need for sleep, betrayed by his dreams and memories and especially betrayed by one person in particular.

“You are NOT gone!”, Kaiba screamed into the silence, into the lonely void around him. “I drag you back here and make you take responsibility! You are not gone! You can't be gone you bastard!”

Nothing answered him. Of course.

White hot rage swept through Kaiba, followed by a deep, deep cold. He would do this. He COULD do this! He HAD to do this!

They had a bound, they had unfinished business and Kaiba refused to let this one go. He had a prize to win, he had a score to settle and a dept to call.

… maybe it was time to bet that final chip again.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Banned Together Bingo 2020 prompt: gambling. 
> 
> I originally wanted to write a Phoenix Wright one with that. BUT them I kinda had a good idea for Yami calling out Seto for his shit and yeah... this happened. The gambling here refers to the Duel between Yugi/Yami Yugi and Kaiba during the Duelist Kingdom Arc. Let's face it: Seto was NOT in a good place there and he did act like the greatest tool ever. Yami could have easily killed him. Yeah it was also Yami's fault for continuing to play a game with a person doing something that stupid but expecially Manga!Yami kinda did exactly that shit for a while and left quite a few corpses behind.  
> But yeah, Kaiba was simply gambling with life. And I wanted to show that he well... didn't really learned his lesson otherwise the Dark Side of Dimensions couldn't have happened or at least not like it did in the end.  
> Still, hope you all had fun ;)


End file.
